Housing is a right, not a privilege to be owned and enjoyed by only the rich, and the Boston Angry Tenants Union (BATU) is working hard to prove the point. BATU is a grassroots, tenant-run organization whose mission is to organize tenants to act militantly and collectively in order to change the state of housing in Boston. We cannot count on dirty politicians to get the job done; all tenants deserve a voice. We need to take control of our own lives and make decisions for ourselves.

In Vermont, where 79 percent of businesses employ nine or less people, building a strong union movement could be an uphill battle. Many workers are employed in small service sector operations highly dependent on tourist dollars, where organizing has been a seemingly impossible task. Additionally, most of these workplaces pay low wages and employ people on an ‘at will’ basis, where workers can be fired at anytime for any reason. These economic ‘on the job’ realities have long posed difficult questions for workers interested in building a movement that gives them a voice on the job and strives to organize broad based working class power in the Green Mountains. Enter the Montpelier Downtown Workers Union.

How did the David Cobb/Pat LaMarche ticket receive the Green Party nomination? And what does it mean for the Green Party in particular and American politics in general? My conclusion is that the so-called "red states" Greens, by rejecting Ralph Nader/Peter Camejo campaign, diminished the Green Party's own strength in the "safe state" of California, ironically without helping the pro-war Democratic Party candidate John Kerry (despite the hope of the Cobb/LaMarche faction) in the most crucial "swing states": Ohio (20 electors/3.6% victory margin in 2000), Florida (27/0.0%), Pennsylvania (21/4.1%), and Michigan (17/5.1%).

In a move sharply criticized both by religious leaders and civil libertarians, the Bush-Cheney campaign has issued a guide listing about two-dozen "duties" and a series of deadlines for organizing support among conservative church congregations.